I use the term “Christian” pretty loosely in the case because I really only consider one of the shirts to have a message that actually represents Christianity accurately, but the other two are funny to me and would have a good chance of sparking conversations, which is my primary goal in wearing unique t-shirts.

First, the funny ones:

I find this particularly amusing as I’ve attended “church with cookies” since I was about 14 (with a 4-year exception while going to college; I still went to church, they just didn’t offer cookies). One of my favorite things about The Experience is that there’s a meal after each service; it makes it a lot easier to get to know people better, since that seems to happen naturally over food. But it’s not the whole point!

This one has an angel on one sleeve and a devil on the other. The concept makes me smile because in our culture that’s almost universally recognized (though more likely from cartoons than anything else!). I’d probably get the cookie one first, because though this one could land me in a conversation about influences, etc., more likely it would just get smiles. I could get this for my friend, Cindy, though; she claims I’m her conscience.

And the more serious one:

Humans fail, though. Interesting point, and one of the better-designed shirts I found (the downside of “crowdsourcing”: the crowd often has appalling taste… in my hardly-ever-humble opinion).

If I win one of the gift certificates, you may see me sporting one or more of these in the future.

The premise of the book is that sometimes evangelism is not about having a polished testimony, or knowing all the texts meant to convert people, but rather, it’s just the willingness to notice another person and reach out to him.

This concept certainly isn’t a new one, but I like its presentation in this book. The author illustrates this idea clearly through a bunch of personal stories. He also tackles the deeper question of “why isn’t this our first instinct, anyway?”

One of the questions at the end of chapter one tackles this a bit. It is actually a set of true-or-false statements:

• I believe that every person I know would be better off living God’s way.
• I live my life in such a way that others around me know I believe this.
• I want to become more of a walk-across-the-room man or woman who jumps all over evangelistic opportunities God lays in my path.
• I’m willing to let go of other passions so that God’s people can take top priority.

I don’t know about you, but for me, some of those questions are hard-hitting. For the record, my answers:

How do you answer these questions?